AthlonSports.com - Joey Loganohttp://athlonsports.com/category/nascar-drivers/joey-logano
enNASCAR Numbers Game: 7 Amazing Stats for Indianapolishttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/nascar-numbers-game-7-amazing-stats-indianapolis
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>For the 20th time, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will descend upon Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, but the track isn&rsquo;t the primary topic.</p><p>Maintaining and improving is the focus de jour for drivers and teams in the midst of one of the most hotly contested races to the Chase since the playoff&rsquo;s inception. Two drivers &mdash; one particularly dominant at Indianapolis &mdash; look to maintain their sterling summer performance. Two drivers both on the Chase bubble &mdash; one terrific at Indianapolis, the other having produced at replacement level there for four races &mdash; need to ensure that the 2.5-mile track provides them with a finish that can help in realizing their wildest title fantasies.</p><p>While they aren&rsquo;t discussed as a potential winner at Indianapolis, the driver and team that have been quietly lighting up the Cup Series since May look to continue their point-padding ways.</p><p><br /><strong>9.0 </strong>&nbsp;Clint Bowyer and the No. 15 Michael Waltrip Racing team have the best average finish (9.0) over the last 10 races.</p><p>Dating back to the Talladega race, two of Bowyer&rsquo;s fellow MWR employees, Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers, have scored victories; however, it is Bowyer and crew who have been the most electric performers out of the stable. Finishing in the top 15 in seven out of eight races &mdash; and on the lead lap for each one &mdash; Bowyer&rsquo;s 5.0 finish deviation, which measures the consistency of a team&rsquo;s finishes, indicates a level of steadiness that the team might wish to emulate in the Chase.</p><p><br /><strong>6.700</strong> &nbsp;Jimmie Johnson, who scored three victories at Indianapolis in five CoT era races, leads the Cup Series in PEER (a measure of performance in equal equipment) at the facility with a 6.700 rating. &nbsp;<img alt="Jimmie Johnson" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/40199-1/Johnson-Bricks_300.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 223px; margin: 7px; float: right; " /></p><p>Johnson&rsquo;s four victories in total list him among the Foyts, Schumachers and Gordons of the world as one of the storied track&rsquo;s top conquerors. Amazingly, if he isn&rsquo;t winning Indianapolis, he is suffering a day to forget. In his last nine Indy starts, he accumulated four wins and five finishes of 19th or worse. Saying he&rsquo;s a win threat this weekend as long as nothing catastrophic happens might be the year&rsquo;s biggest understatement. Because of the feast-or-famine results pattern from the No. 48 team, another driver holds the best average finish there across the CoT era races.</p><p><br /><strong>5.0</strong> &nbsp;Greg Biffle&rsquo;s fifth-place average finish in the last five races at Indianapolis is three positions better, on average, than any other driver.</p><p>Biffle? Who knew? The driver of Roush Fenway Racing&rsquo;s No. 16 hasn&rsquo;t scored a win at Indianapolis, but he has silently been the track&rsquo;s most dependable finisher during the aforementioned time frame. He ranks second in PEER (5.450) thanks to finishes of eighth, fourth, third, seventh and third, which makes his 2.3 finish deviation there the most consistent among top performers.</p><p><br /><strong>1 and 2</strong> &nbsp;The No. 24 team of Jeff Gordon ranked first and second in 2011 and 2012, respectively, in average green-flag speed at Indianapolis.</p><p>Perhaps the other four-time 400 winner isn&rsquo;t done adding to his tally? In the last two events, it was clear that Gordon and crew chief Alan Gustafson carried serious speed. Unfortunately, neither outing translated to victory. He finished second to Paul Menard in 2011 and fifth last season. The biggest question surrounding Gordon, who is bouncing on the Chase bubble with seven races remaining in the regular season, is whether Gustafson&rsquo;s speedy Indy setups can work with the Gen-6 car. Then, it becomes a matter of sealing the deal for his first victory there since 2004.</p><p><br /><strong>202</strong> &nbsp;Juan Pablo Montoya led 202 laps across the five CoT era races at Indianapolis.</p><p>Montoya&rsquo;s finishes are an item of concern, though. He crashed out of two races during that time frame, including the 2010 event in which he led 86 laps. His average finish through those five races was 26.2, with his best finish being an 11th-place score following a pit road speeding penalty in his 116 laps-led showing in 2009. Of note: the crew chief for his most dominant performances was Brian Pattie, who now sits on the pit box for the driver with the hottest hand in the Cup Series (Bowyer; see above). Since Pattie was fired from Earnhardt Ganassi Racing, Montoya hasn&rsquo;t led a single lap and earned finishes of 28th and 21st in two races.</p><p><br /><strong>40th</strong> &nbsp;After a six-race string of finishes 11th or better, Joey Logano was saddled with consecutive finishes of 40th at Daytona and New Hampshire and now sits 18th in the Cup Series point standings.</p><p>Well, that escalated quickly. Logano rode a consistency wave all the way to 10th in the point standings just two races ago. What Logano, crew chief Todd Gordon and the Penske Racing No. 22 will need to accomplish this weekend in order to stop the bleeding will be foreign to Logano&rsquo;s best Indianapolis efforts. Logano ranks 29th in PEER (0.313) at Indy. His best finish (ninth) came in Joe Gibbs Racing equipment in 2010&rsquo;s race.</p><p>Logano might have his spirit lifted with a stellar Saturday performance, something that would be in accord with his current run through the NASCAR Nationwide Series.</p><br /><p><strong>5.3</strong> &nbsp;Logano has averaged a finish of 5.3 in eight Nationwide Series races this season. &nbsp;<img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/40201-1/Logano-NNS_300.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 223px; margin: 7px; float: right; " /></p><p>Last year, Logano finished seventh in the inaugural Nationwide race at Indianapolis, but the car he&rsquo;ll be driving this weekend captured the victory with Brad Keselowski behind the wheel. To secure a win of his own, he&rsquo;ll have to topple the Kyle Busch-JGR juggernaut, the team with the only average finish (4.9) better than Logano&rsquo;s. A win can go a long way in the apparent redevelopment of the 23-year-old driver. The extra seat time on Indy&rsquo;s hallowed grounds may ultimately do his Chase chances some good.</p><br /><p>For PEER and other metrics with which you may be unfamiliar, I refer you to my <a href="http://www.motorsportsanalytics.com/glossary.html" target="_blank">glossary of terms on MotorsportsAnalytics.com</a>.</p><p><em>David Smith is the founder of Motorsports Analytics LLC and the creator of NASCAR statistics for projections, analysis and scouting. Follow him on Twitter at</em> <a href="http://www.twitter.com/DavidSmithMA" target="_blank">@DavidSmithMA</a>.<br />&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photos by</em> <a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></p> </div></div></div>Tue, 23 Jul 2013 16:27:27 +0000David Smith24818 at http://athlonsports.com60 Funny Fantasy NASCAR Team Names for 2016http://athlonsports.com/nascar/60-funny-fantasy-nascar-team-names-2016
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>The 2016 <a href="http://athlonsports.com/nascar" target="_blank">NASCAR</a> season is about to crank up with the 58<sup>th</sup> running of the Daytona 500 less than three weeks away. That also means it is about time to start registering for your favorite 2016 fantasy NASCAR league. We have come up with 60 funny, crazy, weird and/or outright silly names to help you get started on your quest to fantasy NASCAR greatness. Even if you don&rsquo;t win your league, you can still dominate the competition in the &ldquo;name game&rdquo;. Here&rsquo;s our list, in no particular order of awesomeness.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Rowdy Busch Always Takes the Pole</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Losing Makes My Dick Trickle</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Perfectly Shaped Almirolas</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Kurt Busch&rsquo;s Secret Assassin Girlfriend</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>2 Girls, 1 Sprint Cup</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Wise Johnsons Fear Rowdy Busch</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>The Big Keselowski</strong></span></p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" src="http://media1.break.com/dnet/media/910/920/2920910/31-abide-able-big-lebowski-animated-gifs-image-15.gif" style="font-size: 13px; width: 350px; height: 197px; float: right; margin: 4px;" /></strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Dillon Kahne</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>A Happy Harvick Ending</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Dog the Labonte Hunter</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>2 Lbs. in the rear Got Her Loose</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Trevor Bayned Your Lady</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Michael Waltrip&rsquo;s Masculine Side</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Jimmies, Johnsons and Poles</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Tears for Mears</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>The Rick Hendrick Experience</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: 22px;">Petty...Petty...Petty...Good</span></strong></p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" src="http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view7/3236150/larry-david-staredown-o.gif" style="font-size: 13px; width: 320px; height: 179px; margin: 4px; float: right;" /></strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Green Eggs and Hamlin</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>2 Buschs 1 Johnson</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>A Little on the High Side</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Humpy&#39;s Wheelers</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Hello&hellip;.Newman!</strong></span></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Shake &lsquo;n Bake</strong></span></p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" src="http://cdn.makeagif.com/media/6-18-2015/K7Zc_t.gif" style="font-size: 13px; width: 325px; height: 244px; margin: 4px; float: right;" /></strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Gilliland&rsquo;s Island</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Is that What Boris Said?</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Blaney&rsquo;s Got a Gun</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Your Busch Burned My Johnson</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>The TrueX-Files</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Pap&rsquo;s Mears</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Gibbs Me My Trophy!</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Shaking the Busch, Boss</strong></span></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view2/3308567/cool-hand-luke-o.gif" style="width: 325px; height: 217px; float: right; margin: 4px;" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Me So Hornish!</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Close Encounters with the Third Turn</strong></span></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 22px;">Gettin&rsquo; Loose with Danica</span></strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Almirola Doobie</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Dillon A$$ Whoopin&rsquo;s</strong></span></p>
<p style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">&nbsp;</p>
<p style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><strong><span style="font-size:22px;">Tony Stewart&#39;s Therapi$t</span></strong></p>
<p><strong style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;"><img alt="" src="http://i.imgur.com/sBi0Y.gif" style="font-size: 13px; width: 250px; height: 114px; margin: 5px; float: right;" /></strong></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>El Diablo and the Magic Man</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>A Country Boy/Gal &nbsp;Kahne Survive</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Haas My Driving?</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Pissin&rsquo; Excellence</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Earnhardt and Soul</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Allmendinger Berries</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Busch Whackers</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Jeremy Mayfield&rsquo;s Piss Guy</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Petty Larson</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Beating Off the Biff</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Rubbin&rsquo;s Racin&rsquo;</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>A Bowyer&rsquo;s Life</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Blue Logano</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>What&rsquo;s the Frequency Kenseth?</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>WHO&#39;S HOUSE? STENHOUSE</strong></span></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view6/4684220/that-s-tricky-man-o.gif" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; width: 240px; height: 180px; margin: 4px; float: right;" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Biffle&rsquo;s My BFFL</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Racers of the Left Arc</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Victory Circle Jerks</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Wheredugo Montoya</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Racecar Backwards is Racecar</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Gentlemen, Start Your Devices!</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Ambrose Before Hoes</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-size:22px;"><strong>Blew Ba-you</strong></span></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&mdash; Written by Rob McVey, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/rob_utvols" target="_blank">@Rob_UTVOLS</a></p>
</div></div></div>Tue, 02 Feb 2016 16:00:37 +0000Rob McVey108435 at http://athlonsports.comJimmie Johnson Makes Early Statement With Atlanta Winhttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/jimmie-johnson-makes-early-statement-atlanta-win
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p><img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/46922-1/JimmieJohnson_2015_mag_300.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 327px; margin: 4px; float: right;" /></p><p>&ldquo;Is he past his prime?&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Will he ever win another championship?&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Should Chad Knaus be fired as crew chief?&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Those questions and then some dogged <strong>Jimmie Johnson</strong> through the first four months of 2014, as the six-time champ endured a winless drought that lasted all the way through the Coca-Cola 600 Memorial Day Weekend. It was a draining series of questions you earn when you&rsquo;re an athlete on top of the mountain; in today&rsquo;s world of 24/7 media, the second you get there is the second everyone waits for you to fall off.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>While Johnson did recover last summer, winning three races in a month&rsquo;s time the team found themselves stumbling in the Chase. Involved in a Kansas wreck, the end result of a poor qualifying effort, Johnson found himself knocked out long before the season finale at Homestead. The 11th-place finish in the final standings was his worst since joining the Cup circuit in 2002. The questions began again: was this team a true title contender going forward?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Two weeks in, we have our answer &mdash; and it&rsquo;s in the form of a Winner&rsquo;s Trophy.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;It takes the pressure off,&rdquo; said Johnson after holding off teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. to win Atlanta, the second race of the Sprint Cup season. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the questions of, &lsquo;Are you going to win this year,&rsquo; the stuff that is from the fans and what goes on in here. It&rsquo;s nice to dodge that. We&rsquo;ll have to win again in six to eight weeks or else those questions will come around. Buys us a little bit of a reprieve.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It also establishes Johnson up front in a way he never was throughout the 2014 season. Last year, it was eventual champion Kevin Harvick who won during the series&rsquo; second race, at Phoenix and then outgunned the Hendrick Motorsports cars on speed nearly every week. At times, Harvick&rsquo;s car would break, the symptom of a first-year team getting its act together. But when the pit stops held up, keeping track position safe for the No. 4 car he would be able to beat Johnson, Earnhardt Jr. and company plenty more than they were used to.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Harvick&rsquo;s still very much a contender, leading a race-high 116 laps Sunday and posting his second straight runner-up finish. However, Johnson was the one who outgunned him late, making up for lost time on multiple pit stops to slice through traffic and score the victory. In a race where passing was difficult, leaving the best cars going mano a mano against each other, the No. 48 car had the brute horsepower and handling to outgun everything else.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>It&rsquo;s a good sign going forward, especially with the way Johnson&rsquo;s team was reorganized a bit at the end of last year.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Through getting to know the new folks on our team, the engineers, they understood what I was asking for, found a way to give it to me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I knew within about two sets of corners when the race started we were going to have an awesome day.&nbsp; The car was just incredible.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Johnson so confident, so soon? That&rsquo;s a bad sign for the rest of the competition.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Let&rsquo;s go Through The Gears post-Atlanta...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">FIRST GEAR: Johnson, Hendrick Make Hay With New Rules Package</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The first week of &ldquo;real&rdquo; racing was clearly a victory for Hendrick Motorsports. Johnson won, teammate Earnhardt ran third and Harvick, driving with a Hendrick chassis and engine, finished between them. In two races, HMS has now led 251 laps which is tops among all teams on the circuit.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Perhaps just as important as Johnson&rsquo;s victory was Earnhardt, posting his second straight top-5 finish to start the season with new crew chief Greg Ives. It&rsquo;s clear the No. 88 team hasn&rsquo;t skipped a beat since losing longtime leader Steve Letarte the end of last season.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Happy with the car.&nbsp;Happy with Greg.&nbsp;Greg is great at communicating,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Our communication is natural, feels good.&nbsp;He&#39;s a pretty decent cheerleader, too, for myself, the team.&nbsp;Man, he&#39;s going to be something else for a while around that garage.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Joey Logano, who won the pole, leads a formidable Team Penske combination. They&rsquo;re clearly top-tier contenders, along with Joe Gibbs Racing. But so far, HMS holds a slight edge.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">SECOND GEAR: Who&rsquo;s In Trouble Early</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/46893-1/TonyStewart_2015_mag_300.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 327px; margin: 4px; float: right;" />It&rsquo;s only two races in, and points don&rsquo;t mean so much with NASCAR&rsquo;s new &ldquo;Win and You&rsquo;re In&rdquo; Chase format. That being said, two former champions in Jeff Gordon and <strong>Tony Stewart</strong> find themselves in deep holes early. Tied for 35th in the standings, that&rsquo;s also how many points in the Chase cutoff they are behind already, as both have wrecked twice in two races. Stewart&rsquo;s slump is the most concerning; he&rsquo;s only got one top-5 finish since returning to the Cup Series following the Kevin Wad, Jr. tragedy last summer.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Other stragglers include Chip Ganassi Racing (four starts, four wrecks) and Roush Fenway Racing, whose young drivers Trevor Bayne and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sit outside the top 20 in points. But perhaps worst off of all is Landon Cassill, the first driver to post back-to-back last-place finishes (blown engines) since the first year of NASCAR&rsquo;s top series in 1949.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">THIRD GEAR: Dude, Where&rsquo;s My Car? And Other Qualifying Debacles</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Friday was already a strange day at Atlanta Motor Speedway after Travis Kvapil&rsquo;s Cup car, holed up in a hotel parking lot overnight never even made it to the track. But NASCAR&rsquo;s qualifying format, already weakened with a debacle at the Daytona 500 took another hit when over a dozen cars never made it past inspection in time. Among those who weren&rsquo;t able to get their shot at qualifying were Johnson, Stewart, and Matt Kenseth.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;If we would have known this was going to happen,&rdquo; tweeted Stewart, &ldquo;We could have worked on the race setup. Was a total waste of a day at the track.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The weird result left full-time cars like HScott Motorsports&rsquo; Michael Annett missing the race without being able to make an attempt. In the end, Annett bought his way in but such a strategy further waters down the whole idea of athletic competition. Whether it was the teams stretching limits, a slow technical inspection line, whatever the culprit&hellip; this situation can&rsquo;t happen again. Group qualifying was supposed to become a way to make the sport more exciting. Instead? It&rsquo;s laughable.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">FOURTH GEAR: No SAFER Barrier&hellip; Again</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Gordon&rsquo;s late-race wreck saw him sent into a backstretch wall without one of the sport&rsquo;s SAFER Barriers. Gordon was OK, despite the hard hit but it was the second time in as many weeks a superstar was put in peril unnecessarily.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>NASCAR, in response claimed this week adding more SAFER barriers at each of its tracks was &ldquo;high priority.&rdquo; But every day, every race they wait puts us ever closer to bad luck striking the sport. Kyle Busch is already out several months with leg injuries after the Daytona debacle; could you imagine if Gordon got hurt the following week? NASCAR is playing with fire right now and one more incident at Vegas this Sunday could force the sanctioning body to put its money where its mouth is.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">OVERDRIVE</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Reaction on the new driver track bar adjuster was mixed. Some, like Jamie McMurray thought it saved an ill-handling car during a run while others felt like there was limited impact. &ldquo;I haven&#39;t found it to be anything that sets the world on fire,&rdquo; Earnhardt Jr. said. &ldquo;Actually moving it down really just hurts my car.&nbsp; Moving it up made the back swing a little bit too much.&nbsp; I never used it and got happy about it&hellip;&rdquo; Regan Smith (filling in for Kurt Busch) and David Ragan (Kyle Busch) ran 17th and 18th, respectively in their substitute roles. Ragan will be driving Kyle Busch&rsquo;s No. 18 car for the next several weeks until the JGR organization thinks young Erik Jones is ready to run the race&hellip; A late-race accident that put Gordon in the wall started when Denny Hamlin, one of last year&rsquo;s Final Four championship contenders simply lost it. &ldquo;I just got sucked around,&rdquo; he said to jumpstart an incident that also involved McMurray and Stenhouse Jr.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>&mdash; Written by Tom Bowles, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network and the Majority Owner of NASCAR Web site <a href="http://Frontstretch.com" target="_blank">Frontstretch.com</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:tom.bowles@frontstretch.com">tom.bowles@frontstretch.com</a> or on Twitter <a href="https://www.Twitter.com/NASCARBowles">@NASCARBowles</a>.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; "><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><em style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Photos by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" style="font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></em></span></p> </div></div></div>Wed, 04 Mar 2015 15:45:00 +0000Tom Bowles98857 at http://athlonsports.comDaytona 500 Photo Slideshow http://athlonsports.com/daytona-500-2105
<div class="field field-name-field-feautred-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Square Image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="/sites/athlonsports.com/files/Daytona500-00011.JPG" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-vertical-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Vertical Image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="/sites/athlonsports.com/files/Daytona500-00011_4.JPG" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-homepage-featured-image field-type-image field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Horizontal Image:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img src="/sites/athlonsports.com/files/Daytona500-00011_2.JPG" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-related-articles field-type-node-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Related Articles:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/nascar/slideshows/10-most-memorable-daytona-500s">The 10 Most Memorable Daytona 500s</a></div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="/nascar/7-amazing-nascar-driver-stats-datytona-500">7 Amazing NASCAR Driver Stats for the Daytona 500</a></div><div class="field-item even"><a href="/nascar/nascars-greatest-throwback-paint-schemes">NASCAR&#039;s Greatest Throwback Paint Schemes</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-display-section field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Display Section:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/section/nascar">NASCAR</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-44 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Section:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/section/nascar">NASCAR</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-taxonomy-vocabulary-66 field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">NASCAR Drivers:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/category/nascar-drivers/joey-logano">Joey Logano</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-exclude-from-feeds field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Exclude From Games:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Exclude From Games</div></div></div>Mon, 23 Feb 2015 16:35:30 +0000Athlon Sports98420 at http://athlonsports.comJoey Logano Comes Into His Own With Daytona 500 Victoryhttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/joey-logano-comes-his-own-daytona-500-victory
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p><img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/46918-1/JoeyLogano_2014_300.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 327px; margin: 4px; float: right;" />After all the drama leading up to it, the 57th edition of NASCAR&rsquo;s Daytona 500 clearly lived up to the hype. While the last lap was a bit anticlimactic, the three-abreast racing leading up to it contained more than enough excitement to hold any race fan, old or new on the verge of a heart attack. While it ended under caution, a feel-good storyline was green-lighted with a first-time winner of the Great American Race, <strong>Joey Logano</strong>, hustling to the finish as the only Ford in contention, somehow keeping afloat despite long lines of Chevys and Toyotas behind him. Most importantly, there was a minimal amount of equipment torn up, just a small handful of wrecked cars after a Speedweeks that created enough shredded sheet metal to build your own car dealership.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>That&rsquo;s important following a weekend in which Kyle Busch&rsquo;s injury, calling NASCAR&rsquo;s safety record into question threatened to derail Daytona momentum. Instead, 2015 got off to a strong start for stock car racing because every quarter of this race, not just the fourth one was worth watching. While Jeff Gordon dominated Daytona&rsquo;s first half, leading 77 of 100 laps you rarely felt like the cars were strung out single-file. Racing, not debris or some pit road controversy became the central focus.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>To bring fans back, carrying the momentum over from NASCAR&rsquo;s 2014 Chase that&rsquo;s how it&rsquo;s going to have to be. Catchy gimmicks, driver personalities and new rules designed to increase parity can only go so far. It&rsquo;s the racing, the ability to pass, bump, make contact and push these cars to the edge that will keep someone watching television through 500 miles. No matter how much Danica Patrick yells, no matter how much Tony Stewart stomps his feet a boring race will make them flip the channel. It&rsquo;s the same with college basketball or any other sport; competition, above all is what captivates people in sports.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So that&rsquo;s the best thing to take away from this 500: NASCAR started off the year highly competitive. Let&rsquo;s hope it stays that way.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Through The Gears we go as this NASCAR column gets revved up for another go-round in 2015...</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">FIRST GEAR: Joey Logano Comes Into His Own</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Down the stretch of this Daytona 500, Logano appeared to have the cards stacked against him. Teammates Brad Keselowski and Ryan Blaney had blown engines. No other Fords, automatic helpers for his fast No. 22 Ford were in contention. It seemed the young driver was stuck in a corner, ready to be freight trained by the Hendrick Motorsports group that clearly had the fastest cars left in the race.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The &ldquo;old&rdquo; Joey Logano, the one that started his career with his confidence chipped away at Joe Gibbs Racing wouldn&rsquo;t be able to handle that. He&rsquo;d have mentally withered under the stress, slipped backwards and made the wrong move with a plate package where one bad decision left you 20th. But this new guy? The one living up to his potential at Team Penske? He didn&rsquo;t so much as blink.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;He managed the race,&rdquo; said owner Roger Penske. &ldquo;He was able to play fair yet knew what he had to do.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>What Logano did was simple: pick another drafting partner, head to the front, and block out thoughts of possible retribution by rivals Denny Hamlin or Kevin Harvick -- the latter of which got into a shouting match with him after Thursday&rsquo;s Duels.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Obviously, you think about it,&rdquo; he said of past conflict. &ldquo;I want to say it&rsquo;s long enough that we can move on and race with each other, and we did.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;[So] I chose the 15 (Clint Bowyer) as a teammate, as someone to work with because for some reason sometimes you get two cars that match up really well. He matched up with me today. For some reason, he started pushing, and I wanted this guy behind me the rest of the race.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The Bowyer-Logano tandem got the No. 22 to the front, and there he stayed during a green-white-checkered finish where his line was able to dart right into the lead. It was using his head, in the middle of NASCAR&rsquo;s Super Bowl and one of many signs showing Logano has matured. How appropriate really, that when last generation&rsquo;s driver ran his last Daytona 500 (Jeff Gordon) it was Logano, the driver potentially tagged with that label now who came out on top with his first.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">SECOND GEAR: Busch Brothers Go Bye-Bye&hellip; For Now</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/46899-1/KyleBusch_2014_300.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 327px; margin: 4px; float: right;" />Sunday was weird for a certain Las Vegas family, as it was the first time since 2000 the Daytona 500 didn&rsquo;t include a Busch brother. For <strong>Kyle</strong>, it was watched from his hospital bed after this serious XFINITY Series wreck in Daytona resulted in a compound fracture of his right leg (similar to what Tony Stewart suffered in a sprint car race a few years back) combined with a smaller fracture midway down his left foot.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Busch wound up watching from his hospital bed, Matt Crafton subbing in and recording a respectable top-20 finish. It was more than anyone could have asked for with the Truck Series champ making his first ever Cup start, in NASCAR&rsquo;s biggest race, no less.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Who knows how long the younger Busch will be out. At least his crash appears to have one silver lining, accelerating NASCAR momentum toward getting SAFER barriers installed on every inch of every racetrack. Daytona Speedway President Joie Chitwood III already pledged his track would have it, no matter the cost so no incident like that ever happens again without proper protection.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Related:</strong> <a href="http://frontstretch.com/2015/02/21/nascar-daytona-knows-how-close-they-came/" target="_blank">NASCAR, Daytona Know How Close They Came</a> (<a href="http://Frontstretch.com">Frontstretch.com</a>)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As for Kurt Busch, his career prospects look bleak after NASCAR indefinitely suspended him for a protection order entered against him. Ex-girlfriend Patricia Driscoll lauded the decision, one the sanctioning body held up over a series of appeals by the driver. Chevrolet has also suspended their relationship, meaning Busch could be in position to get released by Stewart-Haas Racing sometime this week. His contract gives them an out for this type of scenario; it&rsquo;s simply whether he&rsquo;ll choose to exercise it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Regan Smith did an admirable job subbing for Busch on short notice. However, he wound up an uneventful 16th and was working on a one-race deal. You have to wonder if owner Gene Haas, if he does part ways with Busch will believe in Smith enough to keep the team operational. The whole No. 41 car was tailor-made for Busch, funded out of the owner&rsquo;s own pocket. With no Chase bid and potentially no Busch&hellip; is he willing to keep it afloat?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">THIRD GEAR: Tough Streak For Tony Stewart Continues</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Tony Stewart had high hopes to break a Daytona 500 streak approaching Dale Earnhardt, Sr. status. 0-for-16 entering the race, he snuck inside the top 5 early and appeared to have a car capable of contending. But it was Stewart that also shot himself in the foot, losing control off turn 4 in a wreck that ended his chances along with fellow 500 favorite Matt Kenseth.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;When it got three-wide that particular lap it got away from me, and I got out of the gas and couldn&#39;t even get the front end caught up when I got out of the gas,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If Ryan (Blaney) wasn&#39;t there [to make contact], I still was going to hit the fence.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Stewart now has three straight 500 finishes of 35th or worse. That doesn&rsquo;t hurt in the standings as much as it used to considering NASCAR&rsquo;s &ldquo;Win And You&rsquo;re In&rdquo; Chase format but it clearly wasn&rsquo;t the start Smoke expected. As every year passes, the more it seems the Earnhardt curse was passed on.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">FOURTH GEAR: Hendrick&rsquo;s Missed Opportunity</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/46897-1/DaleEarnhardtJr_2014_300.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 327px; margin: 4px; float: right;" />Most of the on-track action up front, throughout Daytona Speedweeks centered around Joe Gibbs Racing and Hendrick Motorsports. JGR, with the Kyle Busch injury lost crucial momentum but HMS rolled through the field during much of the Daytona 500. Jeff Gordon led the most laps (87) and for much of the race, all four cars found themselves inside the top 5. Late in the going, when Gordon tripped up on a restart Jimmie Johnson fought back from a pit road penalty to take control. Between those two and <strong>Dale Earnhardt, Jr.</strong>, victory for HMS seemed assured.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So what happened? Each driver made crucial bad decisions on restarts. The one for Earnhardt stung the most; with 19 laps left, he made a move toward the middle that got him shuffled back to 19th. No way the No. 88 team could recover, although they clawed back to third. Jeff Gordon had a similar problem and wound up in the day&rsquo;s big wreck, stopping action midway through the final lap. In the end, only Earnhardt wound up on the podium, with Johnson fifth, Kasey Kahne ninth and Gordon 33rd on a day these cars clearly ran better.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get cars that good too often,&rdquo; said Earnhardt. &ldquo;You like to try to capitalize.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>HMS couldn&rsquo;t do it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">OVERDRIVE</h4><p>&nbsp;</p><p>*A lot of fans will disagree with NASCAR&rsquo;s decision to throw the caution, freezing the field after a semi-big wreck blocked the backstretch midway through the final lap. I think the answer here is simple: NASCAR was forced to err on the side of caution. With Kyle Busch&rsquo;s injury 24 hours old, how bad would it have looked if the race finished up while someone was badly hurt in that wreck? With the sport under the microscope in terms of safety, it&rsquo;s just put in a position where they can&rsquo;t take any chances -- especially with how outspoken the drivers themselves were about the risks at Daytona. Notice you didn&rsquo;t hear any of them say, &ldquo;I wish we could have finished the race under green&rdquo; Sunday night.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>*The best thing about Danica Patrick&rsquo;s Daytona? She came home in one piece. But that&rsquo;s about all you can say after she spent much of the day out of view at one of her best racetracks. Speedweeks equaled stress this year for Patrick, the 2013 Daytona 500 pole sitter who had more wrecks courtesy Denny Hamlin&rsquo;s rear bumper (two) than laps led in THREE Daytona races (none). With her contact up at Stewart-Haas, questions about her future loom large and the boom of that drum will only get louder every week. A top-10 finish here, as &ldquo;random as they seem&rdquo; sometimes would have quieted the doubters; not to have one was a big miss.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>*NASCAR&rsquo;s decision to throw a red flag shortly after the Justin Allgaier wreck saved a whole lot of big teams from running out of gas; it&rsquo;s easy to understand why. One just hopes it&rsquo;s just a precedent they stick to going forward instead of changing their minds race by race.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>&mdash; Written by Tom Bowles, who is part of the Athlon Contributor Network and the Majority Owner of NASCAR Web site <a href="http://Frontstretch.com" target="_blank">Frontstretch.com</a>. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:tom.bowles@frontstretch.com">tom.bowles@frontstretch.com</a> or on Twitter <a href="https://www.Twitter.com/NASCARBowles">@NASCARBowles</a>.</em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; "><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><em style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Photos by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" style="font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></em></span></p> </div></div></div>Mon, 23 Feb 2015 15:00:00 +0000Tom Bowles98343 at http://athlonsports.comJoey Logano 2015 Season Driver Previewhttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/joey-logano-2015-season-driver-preview
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p><img alt="" src="http://images.athlonsports.com/d/46918-1/JoeyLogano_2014_300.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 327px; margin: 4px; float: right;" />Joey Logano&rsquo;s been termed the &ldquo;best thing since sliced bread&rdquo; for a decade now, but 2014 was the year he finally earned that label. Logano, who had three career wins entering the season, won five times and went all the way to Homestead in the title hunt before fading to fourth after the season&rsquo;s final race.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The man who was anointed by Mark Martin as the &ldquo;best driver&rdquo; of his generation took a big step forward at age 24, the same age at which Jeff Gordon won his first title. Logano, who would have captured the championship under the old Chase format, gained valuable postseason experience while scoring victories in nearly every type of race. He won on short tracks (Richmond, Bristol), on intermediates (Texas, Kansas) and the flat mile at Loudon last year, leading in a career-high 22 of 36 races. He led 993 laps, more than tripling his previous top mark of 323 for a season, and failed to finish on the lead lap just six times. By season&rsquo;s end, owner Roger Penske had Logano signed to a long-term extension, as the once-disappointing superstar completed his transition from bust to boom.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a spectacular year,&rdquo; Logano said at Homestead. &ldquo;We had fun with it. Learned a lot, how I can maybe do a few things differently next time I compete for a championship.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>He won&rsquo;t have to wait long to do that. Logano enters his third year with Team Penske facing higher expectations; he&rsquo;s set to be one of Sprint Cup&rsquo;s top title contenders for years to come. Driving the No. 22 Ford with sponsorship from Shell-Pennzoil, AAA and AutoTrader.com, Logano has financial support that extends through 2018. A perfect mix of professionalism and potential, Logano was a good pickup for the team after the departure of Kurt Busch, a driver whose off-track controversies affected his on-track performance. Logano keeps his cool and rarely makes waves, although he&rsquo;s learned over the years to stand up for himself. While rivals still exist, like Denny Hamlin, Logano has gained respect from most of his competition.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>That balance of aggression and hard driving is the hallmark of Logano&rsquo;s teammate, 2012 champion Brad Keselowski. Keselowski handpicked Logano as his teammate at Team Penske, and his guidance has no doubt led to improved performance. The two are well matched, using similar driving styles, and are committed to an &ldquo;open book&rdquo; policy with information. Keselowski&rsquo;s a bit more controversial than Logano, and that&rsquo;s part of why it works well; Logano is content to be more mild-mannered, but he&rsquo;s no lackey, a role he sometimes played at Joe Gibbs Racing. It&rsquo;s this duo&rsquo;s chemistry, setting an example from the top down, that keeps Team Penske competitive with rivals twice its size.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Team Penske has become the flagship team for Ford, supplanting Roush Fenway Racing as the manufacturer&rsquo;s prime championship threat. Penske chassis had great speed in 2014, and the Roush-Yates power under the hood represents some of the best engines in the business. A smaller, streamlined Penske team saw both drivers getting only the best equipment and support. Logano&rsquo;s crew chief, Todd Gordon, is often overlooked but is a key cog in the team&rsquo;s engineering and overall success.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><div class="inset-html" style="width:300px;"><img alt="" src="http://shop.athlonsports.com/images/RACING_2015_v200.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 328px; margin: 4px; float: right;" /><em>Athlon Sports&rsquo; 2015&nbsp;Racing&nbsp;</em>magazine&nbsp;delivers full driver profiles as well as complete 2015 NASCAR coverage. <a href="http://shop.athlonsports.com/product_info.php?cPath=33_474&amp;products_id=25476" target="_blank">Click here to order your copy today!</a></div></p><p>So what will it take for Logano to take home his first Cup title in 2015? Perhaps first and foremost, he&rsquo;ll have to stay one step ahead of his older, more experienced teammate. The new rules package, with reduced horsepower and downforce, will play a role as well; teams that figure it out quickly will earn early victories and a pre-Chase edge. Logano also struggled a bit on the restrictor plate tracks, not scoring a top 10 in four combined starts at Daytona and Talladega. Logano&rsquo;s career plate race average is 19.8, and while the superspeedways don&rsquo;t represent a large percentage of tracks, Talladega looms large inside the postseason.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The biggest obstacle Logano faces is the level of competition in the series. With a field of 16, the new Chase format demands near perfection; a single mistake at the wrong time can destroy an entire season in a matter of seconds. It&rsquo;s a lesson Logano learned last year, when a faulty pit stop at Homestead dropped him to the back of the lead lap and destroyed any chance at the title.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The good news is that every other team in the hunt faces the same formidable competition, and Logano gave them all a run for their money last year. Team Penske was the best organization as a whole last season, and with limited changes, it&rsquo;s likely it will be so once again in 2015.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The &ldquo;best thing since sliced bread&rdquo; is ready to keep slicing through the field.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">Fantasy Stall</h4><p><strong>Short track sweet spot&nbsp;</strong> Logano&rsquo;s 6.2-place average finish at tracks smaller than a mile was his best average by track type in a career season that saw him net five trips to Victory Lane. It makes sense. Logano turned heads while racing as a teenager in lower divisions with his dominance at some of America&rsquo;s most heralded short tracks.</p><p><strong>Dropped positions&nbsp;</strong> Logano had a tough time holding onto his stellar running positions last season, considering his team gave up a ton of spots during green-flag pit cycles (a loss of 63 positions) and in the final tenth of races (a 19-position loss).</p><p><strong>Unkind Atlanta&nbsp; </strong>Save for his second-place finish there in 2013, Logano finished 14th or worse in his seven other starts at Atlanta, averaging a 24.3-place finish. His 14th-place finish there&nbsp; in 2014 was an 8.2-position drop from his 5.8-place average running position.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family:helveticaneue-medium,helvetica;font-size:26px;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:0em;line-height:1em;margin:0;">No. 22 Penske Racing Ford</h4><p><strong>Primary Sponsors:</strong> Shell/Pennzoil, AAA Insurance, Autotrader.com</p><p><strong>Owner:</strong> Roger Penske&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Crew Chief:</strong> Todd Gordon</p><p><strong>Year With Current Team: </strong>3rd</p><p><strong>Under Contract Through:</strong> 2018&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Best Points Finish:</strong> 4th (2014)</p><p><strong>Hometown:</strong> Middletown, Conn.</p><p><strong>Born:</strong> May 24, 1990</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4 class="athlon-medium-title" style="font-family: helveticaneue-medium, helvetica; font-size: 26px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0em; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px; text-align: center;">Career Stats</h4><table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;">Years</td><td style="text-align: center;">Starts</td><td style="text-align: center;">Wins</td><td style="text-align: center;">Top 5s</td><td style="text-align: center;">Top 10s</td><td style="text-align: center;">Poles</td><td style="text-align: center;">Titles</td><td style="text-align: center;">Earned</td></tr><tr><td style="text-align: center;">7</td><td style="text-align: center;">219</td><td style="text-align: center;">8</td><td style="text-align: center;">43</td><td style="text-align: center;">82</td><td style="text-align: center;">8</td><td style="text-align: center;">0</td><td style="text-align: center;">$33,949,928</td></tr></tbody></table><p>&nbsp;</p><p style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; "><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><em style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 20px;">Photos by&nbsp;<a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" style="font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></em></span></p> </div></div></div>Thu, 19 Feb 2015 16:00:00 +0000Athlon Sports97973 at http://athlonsports.comKevin Harvick wins in Homestead, claims first NASCAR Sprint Cup titlehttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/kevin-harvick-wins-homestead-claims-first-nascar-sprint-cup-title
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>The knock on the No. 4 team this year with driver Kevin Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers was simple. Entering Homestead, they had clearly proven themselves as one of the fastest &mdash; if not <em>the </em>fastest &mdash; on the NASCAR Sprint Cup grid each week: four wins, including a Phoenix sweep and leading the most laps out in the series was their proof on paper. But for all the victories they&rsquo;d tallied, this bunch still had a hard time finishing races. You can spend 10,000 laps up front over the course of a year but if you don&rsquo;t perform in crunch time, in the final laps, all that number amounts to is a pretty stat.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>On Sunday, Harvick and Childers proved that over nine months, in just their first season together, they&rsquo;ve been able to overcome their deficiencies. Charging from 12<sup>th</sup> to first in the final 20 laps of the race, Harvick rocketed to the front in a winner-take-all Chase format that cemented his logic to move from Richard Childress Racing, where he&rsquo;d spent his entire Cup career, to Stewart-Haas Racing.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;It really changed my life in a new direction,&rdquo; he said after earning his first Cup title the way it should be earned &mdash; in Victory Lane. &ldquo;(Wife) Delana and I looked at things and said, &lsquo;What&rsquo;s going to make us happy?&rsquo; Because in the end, if you&rsquo;re not happy, nothing is going to work like it should.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;ve ever been happier in my whole life than I have been this year. I have no idea how much money I make or what I do. I love showing up to work. And it&rsquo;s been a long, long time since I can sit up here and honestly tell you that I love the experience of everything that&rsquo;s been around me &mdash; it just makes it fun.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So is <em>that</em> what pushed Harvick to the front &mdash; that and a gutsy call by Childers to give him four fresh tires while other contenders stayed out or took two? Was it pure emotion that made the difference? With athletes, we often forget that at the highest level, what separates the most talented individuals is smaller than the width of a fingernail. In Happy Hour practice Saturday, the top speeds of the final four contenders were separated by less than .07 seconds. And throughout most of Homestead&rsquo;s 400 miles on Sunday, each driver ran within the top 5.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Considering that little separation, combined with a week&rsquo;s worth of grueling media attention, mental health <em>does </em>play a bigger role. Harvick&rsquo;s enjoyment of this process this time around was clearly better than the other times he&rsquo;s entered the final weekend with a shot: 2006, &rsquo;10, &rsquo;13. In all those cases, he was clearly an underdog rather than the favorite but the pressure appeared to get to him.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Not this time. This year, Harvick turned to co-owner Tony Stewart and six-time champ Jimmie Johnson, both of whom have been in this position before and offered time and advice. It&rsquo;s a resource he never quite had at RCR, a place where he was expected to be the unquestioned leader as opposed to SHR, a place where he can just &hellip; fit in.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Tony was a big part of giving me the heads up and saying, &lsquo;All right, bud, this is not going to be like [anything you&rsquo;ve been through],&rsquo;&rdquo; Harvick said. &ldquo;He was a big help to helping Delana and I just get through the week and keeping it low key. And Johnson was a huge help in just helping &mdash; he&rsquo;d show up in the trailer after every practice and called (and) texted to Rodney and myself.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Everyone in this top tier of NASCAR has talent. Just to make it to the 43-car grid says something about your level of stock car achievement. They can all put in a good qualifying lap, capture lightning out of a bottle in just one day. To put together a full season, reach the peak over 36 races they need the right combination of people.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Harvick spent 13 years trying to find that combo at RCR. Elsewhere, it took him just one year. That&rsquo;s how close he&rsquo;s been all this time.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Through the Gears&rdquo; we go, one final time in 2014 &hellip;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>FIRST GEAR: Harvick made the right move</strong></p><p>Harvick&rsquo;s race at Homestead was the perfect mix of both strategy and speed. For much of the day, he actually found himself stuck behind Denny Hamlin, the 2013 Homestead winner, in position to capitalize and sneak away with a title. But Hamlin, during a late caution, chose to stay out on old tires while Harvick ducked down pit road for four. With a number of yellows that came after that, constantly bunching the field up on restarts, it gave Harvick the ability to sneak by traffic, get up to Hamlin and ultimately speed right past him.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I have no idea how I got the lead,&rdquo; he said afterwards. &ldquo;I have no clue.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Hamlin, though, knew exactly how he did it, claiming crew chief Darian Grubb made a bad call to keep him out on old tires.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;We were sitting ducks as long as cautions kept coming out,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The breaks didn&rsquo;t quite work out for us.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>So Harvick takes the title, the best possible outcome for NASCAR and its new playoff format. In past years, this team would be dead in the water, strong on speed all year but crushed by inconsistency. But in using the &ldquo;win and keep going&rdquo; portion of the new rules, it was able to peak down the stretch, winning three of the final six races and establishing itself atop NASCAR&rsquo;s hierarchy.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SECOND GEAR: Second is the first &hellip; winner?</strong></p><p>Hamlin&rsquo;s fall to third happened when Ryan Newman, bidding to become the sport&rsquo;s first winless champion, worked himself to second place. It was the best finish for the No. 31 car all season, produced in the finale, as they finished off the Chase as one of the sport&rsquo;s most unlikely underdogs. His Richard Childress Racing team now enters 2015 with plenty of momentum, lifting up what had been a disappointing year with its three-car program.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Just a lot of fight,&rdquo; Newman said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m just so proud of our team.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>With a call for two fresh tires, Newman actually had track position on Harvick down the stretch but couldn&rsquo;t hold on as the No. 4 car came streaming past. Clearing Hamlin for second, Newman had a chance but never really had the speed to get out front. Ending without a single lap led, his stat line for the season will read as one of the most surprising for a second-place finisher in points: 0 wins, five top 5s, and just 41 laps led in 36 starts.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Surely, Newman and RCR made the most of this new format, working the system and top 10-ing it to death to give themselves a chance. But don&rsquo;t hate the players, hate the game &hellip; and remember that in the end, it was still the faster car that won out.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>THIRD GEAR: Oh, what could have been</strong></p><p>It was a small thing, nearly unnoticeable, but none of Hendrick Motorsports&rsquo; four drivers were in the Chevy post-race &ldquo;Notes and Quotes&rdquo; release from Homestead-Miami. That&rsquo;s in large part because all four were eliminated from title contention, the first time that&rsquo;s happened for HMS since 2011 and just the second time in the 11-year history of the Chase.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Jeff Gordon, who wound up sixth in the points, has to be the most frustrated in the camp. At Homestead, he led the most laps (161) and seemed predestined to spoil the title party until an inexplicable late pit stop for tires. While Gordon charged back to run 10<sup>th</sup>, salvaging a decent day, it was a head-scratcher that made you wonder if HMS, aligned strongly with Stewart-Haas Racing, wanted to get one less car out of the way for Harvick to pass en route to the title.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Of course, some might say this championship should be Gordon&rsquo;s anyway. His regular-season points tally was higher than everyone else and without a Chase, he takes the trophy by 37 over Joey Logano. Logano, in his own right, was also feeling the pain; <em>his</em> point total earns him a championship under the 2004-13 Chase format. But that&rsquo;s not the way the game is played and both had their chances throughout the postseason to get the job done.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Unfortunately, a great season like that makes this overall finish fourth because of one mistake, but that&#39;s what the rules are,&rdquo; Logano said. &ldquo;We understand that. This team did a great job of consistently being fast. In previous years, that would have been perfect but coming into this race and the way the points go, it doesn&#39;t pay any more, obviously. We still feel like we did a lot better than fourth this season.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>There were many still unsatisfied because of NASCAR&rsquo;s new playoff format. However, the ratings over the last two races, combined with energetic interest and a sold-out crowd the last two events (Phoenix and Homestead) will create a perception difficult to break. I&rsquo;ve got news for you, longtime traditionalists: this playoff isn&rsquo;t going away.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;You know, what I wanted to do is grow the sport, put us in a stronger position for years to come,&rdquo; Brad Keselowski said after becoming the epicenter for how it found emotions spilling over. &ldquo;I think sometimes we get caught up in too much of the rhetoric around what a champion should reward, whether it&#39;s consistency or wins and those things. And I think I might be a little bit too close to the fire to provide an objective answer. But really all I care about with the format is that it takes the sport to another level for years to come. I think the jury is still out on that, but it looks like it&#39;s going to be good.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>FOURTH GEAR: Wrapping up odds &lsquo;n&rsquo; ends</strong></p><p>While the championship drama defined Sunday&rsquo;s race, there were plenty of other storylines to follow. Kyle Larson, while running a disappointing 13<sup>th</sup>, easily defeated Austin Dillon among others for the 2014 Rookie of the Year title. Larson&rsquo;s eight top-5 finishes left him 17<sup>th</sup> in points, the highest of any non-Chaser and he totaled more laps led (53) than all other freshman contenders combined.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I felt like we would be the top contender once we got halfway through the season, and we definitely were,&rdquo; Larson said. &ldquo;(I&rsquo;m) eally proud of that, proud of the effort everybody has put in on these race cars.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, Chevrolet finished with victories in six of the final eight races, clinching the manufacturers&rsquo; title for a 12<sup>th</sup> straight year. Ford finished second, producing a healthy 14 victories while Toyota drivers managed just two en route to last place.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Dale Earnhardt Jr., who gave Chevy something to cheer about much of the year, wrapped up his final race with crew chief Steve Letarte. The duo didn&rsquo;t succeed in the postseason but still produced a respectable four-win season, Earnhardt&rsquo;s best in a decade, during their final year together.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Working with <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveLetarte">@SteveLetarte</a> was better than I could have ever imagined,&rdquo; Earnhardt tweeted Sunday. &ldquo;The friendship that came with it has changed my life forever. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cheers?src=hash">#Cheers</a>&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Finally, defending champion Jimmie Johnson wrapped up the year 11<sup>th</sup> in points. It&rsquo;s the worst performance of his 13-year career in Cup and coincided with crew chief Chad Knaus getting called to the NASCAR hauler after the race. Knaus wanted to add a wheel spacer on a hub, preventing a loose wheel during the Homestead event but was told not to by a NASCAR official. Why is unclear, since the move isn&rsquo;t exactly illegal but Knaus ignored the directive, exclaiming the sport holds a special set of rules for the No. 48 team. That angered many.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;We were just trying to clarify what went on,&rdquo; said NASCAR Vice President of Competition Robin Pemberton after the race, trying to downplay it although adding Hendrick GM Doug Duchardt to the hauler raised eyebrows. &ldquo;It&#39;s fine. We just wanted to clear the air and clarify everything. It&#39;s really not an issue.&quot;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>OVERDRIVE</strong></p><p><strong>Tony Stewart&rsquo;s</strong> streak of 15 straight seasons with a win came to an end early Sunday. A bashed front end grille caused the No. 14 car to overheat and left Stewart sitting inside the garage dead last. &ldquo;All streaks come to an end at one point,&rdquo; he told the press earlier this week, holding firm that crew chief <strong>Chad Johnston</strong> and the other major players working on his car would keep their jobs heading into next year. &hellip; It was a rough day for <strong>Roush Fenway Racing</strong> as two of three cars were involved in wrecks while the third of <strong>Ricky Stenhouse Jr.</strong> could only muster 22<sup>nd</sup>. With <strong>Carl Edwards</strong> leaving for Joe Gibbs Racing next season, the three drivers that remain &ndash; Stenhouse, <strong>Greg Biffle</strong>, and incoming <strong>Trevor Bayne</strong> &ndash; had a total of one top-5 finish between them in the second half of this season. &hellip; <strong>Marcos Ambrose</strong> ran 27<sup>th</sup> in his NASCAR finale with <strong>Richard Petty Motorsports</strong>. The Australian, heading back to his home country, finishes his Cup career with two victories in 227 starts (both at Watkins Glen) but no Chase appearances and a disappointing zero in the win column on oval tracks. &hellip; Among the early <strong>offseason talk on rule changes</strong>: fixing sideskirts, so sheet metal doesn&rsquo;t stick out like a sore thumb on the side of the cars and getting better adhesion on grille pieces to cut down on debris. The amount of metal coming off has been alarming, with &ldquo;real&rdquo; debris causing five of the 13 cautions at Homestead Sunday.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Follow Tom Bowles on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/NASCARBowles" target="_blank">@NASCARBowles</a></p><p>Photo by <a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></p> </div></div></div>Tue, 18 Nov 2014 04:06:57 +0000Tom Bowles88233 at http://athlonsports.comWinning vs. Consistency: Surprise! NASCAR, Brian France change tunehttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/winning-vs-consistency-surprise-nascar-brian-france-change-tune
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>Each week, Geoffrey Miller&rsquo;s &ldquo;Five Things to Watch&rdquo; will help you catch up on the biggest stories of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series&rsquo; upcoming race weekend. This week, Geoffrey is at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where a batch of storylines lead the series up to the season finale Ford 400. Among them: NASCAR CEO Brian France amending the sport&rsquo;s domestic violence policy, NASCAR&rsquo;s changing tune (again) on winning versus consistency, Kevin Harvick&rsquo;s championship mind games and Carl Edwards&rsquo; last ride with Roush Fenway Racing.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>France: NASCAR amending domestic violence policy</strong></p><p>A little more than a year ago, Travis Kvapil was arrested in North Carolina after assaulting his wife in their Mooresville home. He was held overnight in jail and eventually agreed to a plea deal in the case &mdash; admitting that he had, in fact, assaulted his wife.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Kvapil both raced the weekend after his arrest and never faced further punishment from his team or NASCAR after the plea agreement.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Kvapil&rsquo;s case was brought to light again this week after fellow driver Kurt Busch was accused of domestic violence by his ex-girlfriend. Busch has vehemently denied the accusation and hasn&rsquo;t been charged by police handling the case in Dover, Del., but the incident has sparked discussion about sanctions from NASCAR as the legal part of the process plays out in the wake of the NFL&rsquo;s handling of domestic violence cases earlier in the year.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>According to NASCAR CEO Brian France, that external pressure has led NASCAR to revise its policy for drivers involved in such incidents.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;What&rsquo;s not lost on us by any stretch is the rightful heightened awareness on domestic abuse and violence,&rdquo; France said. &ldquo;You can expect our policies to reflect the understandable awareness that that&rsquo;s not going to be tolerated.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>In other words, NASCAR has seen the backlash the NFL took and decided that now is the time to hold drivers accountable if they assault wives or girlfriends. For Kvapil, timing is everything.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>France also insisted that NASCAR would wait for more in Busch&rsquo;s case before acting &mdash; despite a U.S. representative in California issuing a statement Friday criticizing NASCAR and Stewart-Haas Racing for not excluding Busch from participation after last week&rsquo;s accusations.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;We ought to have a process that gets to the bottom of the facts before anybody does anything,&rdquo; France said.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>NASCAR changes tune on winning and consistency</strong></p><p>It&rsquo;s hardly a secret that Ryan Newman&rsquo;s presence at Homestead-Miami Speedway as a championship-eligible driver is a thorn in NASCAR&rsquo;s early season &ldquo;winning-is-everything&rdquo; mantra. It was just 10 months ago that Brian France announced the radically overhauled Chase for the Sprint Cup that was supposed to make the championship all but out of reach for drivers who post consistent finishes but don&rsquo;t win.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;This is different,&rdquo; France said of the new system in January. &ldquo;Everything is focused around winning, and that is exactly what our fans want.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Newman hasn&rsquo;t won a race in 2014, yet is a 400-mile race away from winning the season championship should be beat the combination of Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano to the finish line. France was asked about Newman&rsquo;s opportunity during a rare press conference Friday at the track and dialed back the party line.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;The question is do we have the right balance, and I would say unmistakably that we do,&rdquo; France said. &ldquo;I think that wanting to win events has taken on an undeniable importance. At the same time, there ought to be room for teams that do it every week and be consistent.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Based on how hard NASCAR pushed the idea that winning is the only thing that matters early in the 2014 season, any concession otherwise gives the appearance that the sport&rsquo;s officials are more happy to follow the sport&rsquo;s current winds than acknowledge that a new system isn&rsquo;t working as originally hyped. France did say that more tweaks to the title fight for the 2015 edition aren&rsquo;t out of question.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;We reserve the right if there&rsquo;s a modest thing that we might make an adjustment on,&rdquo; France said.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Harvick has plan for championship success&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Kevin Harvick started in with some mind games at the first opportunity this week, critiquing Joey Logano for his assistance of Brad Keselowski at the finish of last month&rsquo;s Talladega race. Harvick was adamant that moves like that &mdash; Logano blocked for Keselowski heavily on the last lap &mdash; would be rectified with some sort of on-track karma.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>But Harvick, a prohibitive favorite in Sunday&rsquo;s race with Logano an equal or close second, insisted that he&rsquo;s not aiming for Logano in Sunday&rsquo;s race. Instead, he&rsquo;s got a plan that involves only the efforts of his No. 4 team.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;d plan it out by just kicking their butt all day and not having to race anybody,&rdquo; Harvick said. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m hoping for just like last week.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Harvick dominated a week ago at Phoenix with an untouchably fast car. His win sealed his route to Homestead. But is there a driver that his team has singled-out as the one to beat in order to win the title?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Oh, that&rsquo;s a good question,&rdquo; Harvick said, smiling and seemingly aware of the weight his next words may carry.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>He treaded lightly.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I think right now it&rsquo;s just about doing what we have to do ourselves,&rdquo; Harvick said. &ldquo;I think if we do what we need to do ourselves, that puts us in a better position than worrying about who else we need to beat.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The weekend started to plan. Harvick qualified fifth for Sunday&rsquo;s race, better than all of the other Chase drivers.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Gordon proposes Chase drivers use alternate point system</strong></p><p>Jeff Gordon won the pole for Sunday night&rsquo;s race with a lap 180.747 mph in Friday night&rsquo;s three-round qualifying session. Had he earned a single point more than Ryan Newman in the third round of the Chase, it would have been a significant feather in the four-time champion&rsquo;s cap as he vied for the title this weekend.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Instead, Gordon is out of contention. As a result, he&rsquo;s uniquely qualified to discuss the merits of the new Chase format. He was asked what he&rsquo;d do differently.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I think it&rsquo;s a good system, number one,&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;I like how important it is to win, how that moves you from one round to the next.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>But he also offered a tweak: Use a point system for Chase drivers that ranks them independent of non-qualified drivers.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;This would not have moved me to the final round, but I think it&rsquo;s the right thing to do,&rdquo; Gordon said.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Gordon&rsquo;s system would essentially offer points to drivers in the Chase relative only to other drivers in the Chase. For example, in a 16-driver Chase the top-finishing Chase driver would earn 16 points, second-best in the Chase would earn 15th, third would earn 14, and so on. It wouldn&rsquo;t matter if the best-finishing Chase driver won and the second-best finished 20th &mdash; it would only matter how each Chase driver finished among the others who were qualified.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;You should be racing (Chase drivers),&rdquo; Gordon said. &ldquo;Not those guys and all of the other competitors out there. I think you&rsquo;ve earned that right.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Gordon would maintain the rule that drivers who win get advanced to the next round &mdash; a reward for winning &mdash; and the elimination points.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Edwards set for final drive with Roush Fenway Racing</strong></p><p>Sunday marks the end a relationship spanning over a decade for Carl Edwards and longtime team owner Jack Roush. Edwards, 35, is leaving Roush-Fenway Racing&rsquo;s No. 99 car for Joe Gibbs Racing&rsquo;s No. 19 in 2015.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;This has been such a great ride,&rdquo; Edwards said. &ldquo;I made a lot of great friends, and basically Jack has made a NASCAR career for me. I want to honor that by performing well.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Edwards made his first NASCAR national series in the Truck Series in 2002 for Mike Mittler, but found full-time work with Roush&rsquo;s truck team starting in 2003. He won the 2007 Nationwide Series championship driving for Roush and lost the 2011 Sprint Cup title on a tiebreaker after finishing even with Tony Stewart. Before Sunday&rsquo;s race, Edwards will have tallied 669 starts for Roush and scored 67 total wins and 262 top-5 finishes.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Edwards isn&rsquo;t the only driver facing a final green flag with a team this weekend. Trevor Bayne (moving to Roush Fenway Racing) will make his final start with Wood Brothers Racing and Marcos Ambrose (returning to native Australia and the V8 Supercars Championship) will drive for the last time in Richard Petty Motorsports&rsquo; No. 9.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/GeoffreyMiller" target="_blank">@GeoffreyMiller</a> on Twitter</em></p><p><em>Photo by <a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></em></p> </div></div></div>Sat, 15 Nov 2014 04:08:02 +0000Geoffrey Miller87676 at http://athlonsports.comNASCAR Chase Report: Previewing the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedwayhttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/nascar-chase-report-previewing-finale-homestead-miami-speedway
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>It&rsquo;s hard to believe the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup season is about to come to a close, and the first champion to be crowned under the new bracket-style Chase elimination format will happen this Sunday at Homestead Miami Speedway. With the fourth different championship format in 11 years, many were skeptical of how this would play out; after all the 2013 season came a close with NASCAR tossing out drivers who made it (Martin Truex Jr.) and arbitrarily placing drivers into contention (Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman) two days after the final race at Richmond. Regardless of the opinion or final outcome, it has served what it was intended to do: increase fan interest and discussion of the championship Chase in the midst of college football and NFL Fantasy Football mayhem.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>What it has not done is generate increased television ratings; each Chase race so far has been down &ndash; albeit slightly &ndash; over the last two years with the exception of the last two races at Texas and Phoenix. Add into the mix the possibility of this year&rsquo;s champion potentially not having won a race and you have stock car purists ready to take the streets and burn a Brian France effigy in defiance.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>No, The King or The Intimidator didn&rsquo;t do it this way, but then again Jimmie Johnson won&rsquo;t win number seven this year either, so perhaps in some minds there is some intrinsic value to it after all.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>The Final Four</strong></p><p>While there were no punches thrown following the Quicken Loans Race for Heroes 500 at Phoenix last Sunday, there was a body slam on the final lap. As Gordon crossed the finish line, the four-time champion had skated into the finale on the strength of a tie-break between he and Newman &ndash; Gordon has four wins this year to Newman&rsquo;s zero. That was quickly reversed though, as Newman executed a <em>NASCAR Thunder</em> video-game style pass on Kyle Larson, using the No. 42 as mobile soft wall. While Larson was sent laterally into the wall, Newman cruised past. In the ends-justifies-the-means nature of this new Chase format, what Brad Keselowski was criticized for a week earlier was given little more than a shoulder shrug this time around.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Also, let&rsquo;s give credit where credit is due: Kevin Harvick had to win to stay eligible for a title, and &mdash; as I correctly predicted I this column one week ago &mdash; did just that. He dominated the race in a mirror effort of his February Phoenix performance, sweeping the season&rsquo;s events in the desert. It was his first win in the Chase, his fourth of the year, and proof positive that the No. 4 team is the one to beat heading into Miami this Sunday.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>While Denny Hamlin didn&rsquo;t have a very good car Sunday, falling a lap down early which led to some frantic radio transmissions from the driver, Darian Grub and the No. 11 FedEx team of Joe Gibbs Racing righted the ship (enouh) to recover with a sixth-place finish. It was important for Hamlin for a number of reasons; the least of which was to simply get into the final round, but also to exorcise the demons that have plagued him since what was looking to be a championship-clinching race at PIR in 2010 ended in frustration. Not a bad rally for a driver who missed several races last year with a broken back and had to be replaced at the last minute this year in one race with metal debris in his eye.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Representing the Blue Oval brigade out of the Penske shop is Joey Logano. This marks his first real shot at a title since he was moved to the Cup Series to replace Tony Stewart at Joe Gibbs Racing six years ago. Many have downplayed Logano&rsquo;s chances, saying you first have to lose a championship before you win one. I guess no one told that to Logan&rsquo;s teammate, Keselowski, two years ago when he granted Roger Penske his first Cup Series title. Logano stands to repeat the feat in what has been consistently the fastest Ford on the track for the last year and a half.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Homestead has served as the series finale since 2002, and has played host to a few nail-biters. In 2002, Stewart held off Mark Martin by just 38 points (about eight positions with today&rsquo;s scoring system), while the inaugural 2004 Chase saw six drivers with a shot at it, with Kurt Busch benefiting from his own wheel flying off and bringing out a caution he desperately needed &ndash; while avoiding the end of pit wall in the process. 2011 gave us the closest finish in NASCAR history, with Carl Edwards and Stewart in a dead heat points-wise, with Smoke taking the title by winning the race on a wins tie-breaker.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>But do wins really count this time around?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Newman and Keselowski would tell you they do not. The former had just one top-5 finish before the Chase and hasn&rsquo;t won a race in a year and a half. The latter has the most wins this season but missed the cut due to a rear gearing failure at Martinsville. This year&rsquo;s title could come down to whoever wins, an ill-timed caution, a green-white-checker restart, or a late race caution where one guy stays out and everyone else behind him pits.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Denny Hamlin</strong></p><p><strong>Career at Homestead: 9 starts, 2 wins, 4 top 5s, 5 top 10s, avg. start: 29.2, avg. finish: 11.2</strong></p><p>At first glance, this is Hamlin&rsquo;s title to lose. He&rsquo;s the only one of the four to have won a race in Homestead, is the defending race winner, and his average finish is really only sullied by a 33<sup>rd</sup>-place run in his seven-race 2005 rookie campaign. While this is a 1.5-mile track, it is not the typical tri-oval like Charlotte, Atlanta or Texas. It is perhaps more similar to Chicagoland, the first race of the Chase. Hamlin finished sixth there, the top Toyota. Unfortunately for him, he also finished behind Logano (fourth) and Harvick (fifth). Darian Grubb was Stewart&rsquo;s crew chief in 2011 when the title was on the line and even with a piece of Busch&rsquo;s bell housing tearing a hole in the nose of Stewart&rsquo;s car, was able to rally for the win and claim a championship.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Can Grubb and Hamlin repeat that this Sunday? It&rsquo;s an uphill battle for sure, but given their ability to rally the last few weeks, Hamlin could forever erase that disastrous 2010 race here from his mind.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Kevin Harvick</strong></p><p><strong>Career at Homestead: 13 starts, 0 wins, 5 top 5s, 11 top 10s, avg. start: 14.0, avg. finish: 8.1</strong></p><p>Think Harvick and crew chief Rodney Childers are pumped about having a 1.5-mile track to decide the championship? The team that has shown pure speed at virtually every facility this year has been the No. 4 Chevrolets of Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick has led 2,083 laps in 2014 (or 32 percent of the total laps led in his entire career). Despite the turmoil and distraction this team has found itself combating in 2014 &mdash; from the team owner nearly losing a leg the year before, to Stewart&rsquo;s involvement in the tragic death of Kevin Ward in a sprint car accident this summer &mdash; the replacement for Newman at SHR is in position for his first serious championship threat in his 15 year career and first since parting ways with Richard Childress Racing. While Harvick won four races this year, it very well could have been eight &ndash; at the least. Continued pit road problems led to the swapping of pit crews with the No. 14 of Stewart prior to the Chase. Ever since, the mishaps have stopped and SHR is on the cusp of its second title in four seasons.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Two of Harvick&rsquo;s four wins this year came at Phoenix. The other two, Charlotte &ndash; a 1.5-mile downforce track in October, and Darlington in April. Darlington is a bit like Homestead, although oblong in shape, it has wide sweeping corners and worn pavement with banking similar to Homestead&rsquo;s progressive configuration. You&rsquo;ll have a hard time convincing me &ndash; or Harvick &ndash; that this race isn&rsquo;t theirs for the taking. He has the best average finish among this group, and he doesn&rsquo;t have to worry about laps led or winning the race; the best finish among these four wins the title.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Joey Logano</strong></p><p><strong>Career at Homestead: 5 starts, 0 wins, 0 top 5s, 1 top 10, avg. start: 18.0, avg. finish: 20.8</strong></p><p>If there is one car that showed as much consistent speed as the No. 4, it&rsquo;s been the No. 22 of Logano and crew chief Todd Gordon. While they may have pioneered the now-familiar flared side skirts, this bunch has been bad fast on 1.5-mile tracks this season. They won Texas in the spring on a G-W-C shootout with Gordon, and won at Kansas to guarantee their way into the Eliminator Round. They were fourth at Chicagoland and Charlotte, and were top-5 material at Texas before a blown tire sent the car spinning late in the going. With Keselowski no longer in the Chase and no Roush Fords to fend off, you can bet that Roger Penske&rsquo;s and Jack Roush&rsquo;s deep-seeded disdain for all things Toyota and Chevrolet will see that the collective powers of FoMoCo are brought to bear for JoLo.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Ryan Newman</strong></p><p><strong>Career at Homestead: 12 starts, 0 wins, 1 top 5, 4 top 10s, avg. start: 12.4, avg. finish: 17.0</strong></p><p>No neck? No wins? No problem!&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>When Newman confronted Jimmie Johnson in August at Michigan, Johnson&rsquo;s retort was, &ldquo;You had the same [earmuffs] I had, but you made a bad decision to put yourself in this position.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Define irony, as there are no Hendrick cars to contend with at Homestead, and the only one looking to win a seventh title this weekend is Richard Childress.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The Rocket Man hasn&rsquo;t exactly been a win machine, having not won more than one race a year the last 10 years. He may have to win this Sunday considering his competition, but that&rsquo;s not to say his task is impossible. Three of his last five wins have come courtesy of a G-W-C finish, and if he&rsquo;s near the front and it comes down to a two-lapper to decide the title, don&rsquo;t be surprised to see the No. 31 Caterpillar Chevrolet go full bulldozer-mode and plow through any obstacle in its path. Just ask Kyle Larson.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>2014 Sprint Cup Champion:&nbsp; Joey Logano</strong></p><p>It truly is a coin-flip between Harvick and Logano to take it all.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I don&rsquo;t buy into the hype of having to lose one to win one; it didn&rsquo;t matter for Keselowski, Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Richard Petty, Matt Kenseth, Bobby Labonte or Stewart. Different times and eras, of course, and Logano fits in nicely amongst that group. His performance this season has embodied what everyone had expected from him when he became a familiar name back in 2008. He has come to thrive within Team Penske, working with a driver of similar age and experience &ndash; and one who is no stranger to conflict with other drivers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Roger Penske will win his second Cup title in three years with two different car makes, and with only two cars in the stable. This is an engineering organization if there ever was one, and after dominating the Verizon IndyCar Series this season and winning a championship with Will Power and narrowly losing the Indianapolis 500 in the second-closest finish in history, the Sprint Cup Series championship will put an exclamation mark on what has been an incredible 2014 for The Captain and his crew.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>Follow <a href="http://www.twitter.com/VitoPugliese" target="_blank">@VitoPugliese</a> on Twitter</em></p><p><em>Photo by <a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div>Fri, 14 Nov 2014 12:50:39 +0000Vito Pugliese87668 at http://athlonsports.comHamlin, Harvick, Logano and Newman to settle NASCAR Chase in Homesteadhttp://athlonsports.com/nascar/hamlin-harvick-logano-and-newman-settle-nascar-chase-homestead
<div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"> <p>Twenty-four hours after NASCAR&rsquo;s Phoenix finish, the landscape within the sport is buzzing with more diverse opinions than we&rsquo;ve heard in any recent election. On one side sits a growing chorus of voices claiming this new format is the best decision CEO Brian France ever made, a life-saving choice for stock car racing that turns the tide for NASCAR after years of steady decline. Early returns help support that theory, as Sunday&rsquo;s race pulled a 12 percent increase in the overnight ratings, joining Texas to give the Cup Series two straight audience increases for the first time this year. The Phoenix grandstands were sold out, a rarity these days and the hope is Homestead&rsquo;s season finale will be just as jam-packed.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The pro-NASCAR faction &mdash; growing after Sunday&rsquo;s last-lap madness &mdash; has plenty of ammo in its corner. One: the sport is on the verge of a first-time Sprint Cup champion, the first time that&rsquo;s happened since Jimmie Johnson started a dynasty in 2006. Two: the Final Four includes a driver, Kevin Harvick, who has arguably been the most dominant all year (series-best 2,083 laps led) that would be unable to compete for a title under the old system. Joey Logano has had a breakout year (five wins) and also gets a chance he wouldn&rsquo;t have had. Three: the intensity has brought out more raw emotion in drivers within the last 10 weeks than perhaps the last 10 <em>years</em>. Keep in mind a lot of those happy fans skew younger, part of the crucial 18-to-34 crowd NASCAR needs to hook if its sport is set to survive another generation.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>On the flip side sits the older, traditionalist fan fed up with any type of playoff system. Their first argument hangs on the following stat lines, presented without comment:</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>ELIMINATOR ROUND RESULTS</p><p>OUT: Jeff Gordon (four wins, series point leader without a Chase system)</p><p>OUT: Brad Keselowski (series-best six wins)</p><p>IN: Ryan Newman (zero wins, four top-5 finishes, ranked 22<sup>nd</sup> in laps led (41))</p><p>IN: Denny Hamlin (one win (Talladega), seven top-5 finishes, one top 5 in the Chase, missed a race this season, 14<sup>th</sup> in points without a playoff reset)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The very racing that sparked emotional outbursts is also the kind making fans angry. Newman, to earn his spot at Homestead, chose to dive-bomb rookie Kyle Larson, slamming the No. 42 car in the last turn of the last lap at Phoenix to gain entry. Gordon&rsquo;s exclusion was the direct result of aggressive racing courtesy of Keselowski that caused a flat tire on his Chevrolet. Gordon joins Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Keselowski as drivers with clear championship credentials this season and nothing to show for it. Playing with points in the form of strategy calls, this group feels is a cover-up for poor side-by-side competition during races, with aerodynamics cutting down passing aside from some frantic double-file restarts.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The opinions are fierce, yet with all the talk heading into the Homestead finale, you have to feel like there&rsquo;s a tremor building inside the walls of this sport.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>People may love it. People may hate it. Either way, there&rsquo;s talk in the midst of football season &mdash; and after a year filled with further decline. That tells you the Chase format is making some sort of impact.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Where does NASCAR end up? At this point, after one of the most unpredictable playoff races since NASCAR went this direction in 2004, I have absolutely no idea. The experts are left scratching their head, knowing any one of a thousand different outcomes are possible on Sunday, running the gambit from &ldquo;huge boost&rdquo; of the sport&rsquo;s popularity to setting it up for permanent destruction. (A Newman title, however unlikely, tops the list of damaging outcomes.)</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>At this point, there&rsquo;s only one thing I can tell you for certain: more people will be watching than last year. NASCAR, along with its title contenders, has 400 miles to show a bigger audience that its sport is worth switching over from the NFL for.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Through the Gears&rdquo; we go &hellip;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>FIRST GEAR: Gordon and Keselowski strike out&nbsp;</strong></p><p>All eyes were on Gordon and Keselowski Sunday, one week after their pit road fight made national news. Both had top-5 runs, with Gordon second and Keselowski fourth, but it was ultimately not enough to make the Final Four. Both men, whose seasons were worthy of a championship, were ultimately derailed by one bad performance this round: Keselowski&rsquo;s broken gear at Martinsville which led to desperation &mdash; desperation which perhaps led to the aggressive moves and flat tire it caused Gordon one week later at Texas. That incident left Gordon 29<sup>th</sup>, one lap down and ultimately one point from making the title round.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;That one race, that one race is going to stick with me for a little while,&rdquo; said Gordon after two second-place finishes this round made him the first loser. &ldquo;I got over it this week, knowing that we could come here and compete like this. Now it makes it sting that much more.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I hope we taught somebody that you can race clean and still go out there and give it your best. You don&rsquo;t have to wreck people to make it in the Chase or win the championship. I&rsquo;m not going to wreck a guy that&rsquo;s racing me clean all year long just to make it into the Chase.&ldquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Meanwhile, Keselowski&rsquo;s aggression didn&rsquo;t play out into on-track revenge. No drivers knocked him out of the way in crunch time but the speed just wasn&rsquo;t there for the No. 2 car to contend. No career wins at Texas or Phoenix wound up biting the 2012 champion, who couldn&rsquo;t pull a second straight save after a Talladega win advanced him into the round of eight.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s been a good effort. It&rsquo;s been a great year,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s nothing to hang our head on. We controlled the things we could control &hellip; that&rsquo;s just how this deal works. It still feels like it has been a great season, winning six races. Nobody is going to win anymore than that, and that&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;re proud of.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Both men made had just one bad moment. Both men won during this 10-race playoff, something Hamlin and Newman can&rsquo;t say. But in this format, one catastrophic DNF (or awful performance) is all it takes to cause a knockout, like you&rsquo;re a 1 seed going down in the NCAA Tournament. No one&rsquo;s used to that format in a sport where 36 races used to determine the champion &mdash; not three-race sprints.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>SECOND GEAR: Harvick&rsquo;s dominating performance</strong></p><p>In the meantime, Harvick turned a &ldquo;must-win&rdquo; situation into a relaxing walk in the park. Leading 264 laps, the No. 4 car was in another time zone at Phoenix, building leads of well over three seconds during long green-flag runs. He now has three straight wins at the one-mile oval while leading a whopping 488 of the last 624 laps run there (78 percent).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;This is one of those places that for me as a kid, this was our Daytona 500,&rdquo; said Harvick, a nearby California native. &ldquo;I don&#39;t think we ever talked about anything but trying to come here and win the race.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Now, the desert served as a save for a man who enters Homestead with a bit of an edge. With four wins, a career high in laps led and the most momentum the No. 4 team is going to be hard to beat. Pit road problems have been patched up with a crew swap prior to the Chase stabilizing stops as Tony Stewart&rsquo;s former group now services Harvick. The man whose shove started the brawl at Texas now hopes to play it smart with so much on the line.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I guess you could say, at Homestead, you just go down there and approach the week just like we approached this week,&rdquo; the driver said. &ldquo;Have fun with it, prepare your cars just like you&#39;ve done all year, and feel like you&#39;ve already been in that position as far as knowing how to prepare and how to mentally prepare yourself going into the week because we just came here and did it.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>As for bad behavior &mdash; <a href="https://twitter.com//search?q=%23Harvicking">#Harvicking</a> has gone viral &mdash; his lesson learned came in a &ldquo;what if&rdquo; for when Harvick&rsquo;s son, Keelan, asks about the Texas tangle one day: do as I say, not as I do.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Last week ate me up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The biggest failure in the world would be to be a bad dad. The last two weeks have been good learning lessons.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>A championship trophy would be the ultimate reward for them.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>THIRD GEAR: David vs. Goliath: Hendrick&rsquo;s shocking shutout</strong></p><p>Four drivers from four teams &mdash; Joe Gibbs Racing, Team Penske, Stewart-Haas Racing and Richard Childress Racing &mdash; will fight for the title at Homestead. Nowhere on that list is the team that&rsquo;s won six of the last nine titles on the circuit: Hendrick Motorsports. Gordon&rsquo;s loss meant an HMS shutout of epic proportions: barring a miracle, the four-car team will have no drivers finish fifth or better in points for just the third time since 2000.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Gordon&rsquo;s loss came at the hands of furious comebacks by Final Four combatants Logano and Hamlin. Both drivers were a lap down at times, victims of bad handling and self-induced mistakes that left them outside the top 20. For Logano, it was a pit road speeding penalty that left him fighting through traffic; Hamlin suffered a broken valve stem on a tire after winning the pole. It took all their effort to sneak into the top 10, and while neither driver won this segment, consistency gave them the points to move on.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>That&rsquo;s a word lost in the Hendrick shop for much of the nine-race Chase. Johnson, Earnhardt and Gordon all won in the playoffs only to suffer through disastrous performances. For Johnson, it was a spin not of his making at Kansas after a poor qualifying effort; for Gordon, it was a flat tire after leaving an opening for Keselowski; and for Earnhardt, it was a blown tire at Kansas, followed by a shifter issue that cost him too many positions at Charlotte.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>HMS, long regarded as the model for racing teamwork, also saw cracks in the armor. Earnhardt won at Martinsville while Gordon finished second; a swap there sees Gordon, not Newman, in the Final Four. Johnson and Earnhardt also failed to work together at Talladega during the closing laps, ruining a dominant day and opening the door for Keselowski to advance. Even Kasey Kahne seemed on an island for much of the Chase, quietly fading when a strong Talladega effort would have left him, not Matt Kenseth, sitting inside the final eight. It&rsquo;ll be a long offseason for HMS now, going through at least two crew chief changes (Kahne and Earnhardt) while Gordon mulls retirement and Johnson enters the last year of his sponsor agreement with longtime backer Lowe&rsquo;s.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>FOURTH GEAR: Was Newman right?</strong></p><p>The most hotly debated item, post-Phoenix, is whether Newman was right to nudge the rookie Larson out of the way. With a Chase spot on the line, the freshman driver understood Newman&rsquo;s rationale even though he wasn&rsquo;t completely happy with it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;Coming to the finish, there were a lot of cars racing really hard,&rdquo; he told Motor Racing Network. &ldquo;I knew (Newman) was right around me and knew he needed to gain some spots to keep from getting eliminated from the Chase. It&#39;s a little upsetting he pushed me up to the wall, but I completely understand the situation he was in and can&#39;t fault him for being aggressive there.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t want to do what I did at the end,&rdquo; added Newman. &ldquo;But I did what I had to do.&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Luckily, no team orders came into play. But this one push ultimately made the difference, setting a precedent along with the last couple of weeks that success in this Chase is defined by aggression, aggression and more aggression.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m afraid if it was that ugly the last couple of weeks,&rdquo; said Gordon. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to get really ugly next week [at Homestead].&rdquo;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>OVERDRIVE</strong></p><p>As a domestic investigation surrounding <strong>Kurt Busch</strong> continues, owner <strong>Gene Haas</strong> is vocally supporting his driver. Haas never considered removing Busch from the car (he was seventh Sunday) despite a damning deposition from the driver&rsquo;s ex-girlfriend, <strong>Patricia Driscoll</strong>, in which she claims Busch bashed her head against the wall during a race weekend at Dover. Innocent until proven guilty? Absolutely. But Haas was so brazenly outspoken this weekend about the facts of the case he&rsquo;s going to look like a fool if it goes the other direction &mdash; especially with domestic violence a hot-button issue in the sporting world these days. &hellip; <strong>ESPN </strong>took great care Sunday to ensure fans saw every piece of debris that caused a caution. Were there some flags thrown that were bad calls? Certainly. But at least each fan was able to <em>see</em> the trash on the track with their own eyes so they know a yellow wasn&rsquo;t thrown just because NASCAR wanted to bunch up the field. In our rules-driven culture, that practice was good to see in advance of a Homestead finale that will be heavily scrutinized. &hellip; <strong>Chase Elliott</strong>, just 18 years old, became both the youngest Nationwide Series champ and the first to win the title as a rookie. Congratulated by heavy hitters in Victory Lane&nbsp;including primary owner <strong>Earnhardt Jr.</strong>, father <strong>Bill</strong> (a 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee) and <strong>Rick Hendrick</strong>, it&rsquo;s clear he&rsquo;s got a bright future. <strong>Kahne</strong>, on the verge of a crew chief change and with just three top-5 finishes this year, better hope Gordon considers retirement next season; that&rsquo;s the only way Elliott doesn&rsquo;t bump him out of the No. 5 Cup car in 2016. &hellip; <strong>Clay Rogers</strong>, running for a new NASCAR owner and sponsor, <strong>Mark Beard</strong> and Beard Oil, failed to qualify at Phoenix. Instead, <strong>Mike Bliss </strong>driving a third car for Tommy Baldwin Racing made the field only to start-and-park. While the practice of showing up for a check, not to compete has declined significantly this season it was still disappointing to see it cost a new program. NASCAR needs fresh teams, desperately and every time this practice occurs, to the detriment of new competitors is one time too many.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>Follow Tom Bowles on Twitter: <a href="http://www.twitter.com/NASCARBowles" target="_blank">@NASCARBowles</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><em>Photo by <a href="http://www.actionsportsinc.com" target="_blank">Action Sports, Inc.</a></em></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> </div></div></div>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 06:09:38 +0000Tom Bowles87248 at http://athlonsports.com